(970) 922-9272 | jeff@jmunn.com

Jeff Munn, Creating Extraordinary Futures

My WordPress Blog

  • Jeff Munn, Creating Extraordinary Futures
  • Home
  • About
    • About You
    • More About Me
    • Logos and Testimonials
  • Services
    • Working with Me
    • The Creating Extraordinary Futures Process
    • The Story Behind the Name
  • Resources
    • The First (and Critical) Step to Creating an Extraordinary Future
    • My YouTube Channel
    • Two Centering Practices to Deal with Stress
  • Blog
  • Contact
    • Schedule a Conversation
  • A Journey to Something New

August 16, 2023 by Jeff

Managing My Own Obsessive Nature (While Becoming The Best Coach I Can)

executive coaches
Managing My Own Obsessive Nature

It hit me this morning as I was listening to the recent Fresh Air podcast interview with Christopher Nolan talking about his new movie, Oppenheimer.

I am obsessive.

Those of you who have been following me for a while know that I’m a big Christopher Nolan fan.

And one thing I have noticed is how often people use the word “obsessed” when they talk about him.

Obsessed about his audience’s experience of his films. Obsessed about using the best tools to create that experience (even inventing new tools in the process). Obsessed about writing. Obsessed about time.

Admitting I Have A Problem…

I’ve noticed (and resisted as my wife continually pointed it out to me) that I have those same qualities. And that I gravitate toward the greats in many fields. Movies. Sports. Standup comedy. Even sales and storytelling.

Those who have, to paraphrase Tim Ferriss, deconstructed excellence. Who have obsessed about it to the level of replicating every detail. Even while recognizing the things that simply cannot be replicated.

I’ve been a coach for many years, and a full time professional coach for the last seven. I am coming to understand that my own obsessions about the nature and malleability of our human experience, and the process of sharing my learnings, have led me deeper and deeper into the possibilities of coaching as a catalyst for human change.

My obsessions have not only made me a better coach, they have made me better at building a coaching business.

Others have asked me how I have been able to build a one-on-one coaching business that replaced my corporate income, with only a few clients.

How I was able to enroll clients for a year of conversation at fees that exceed the cost of most automobiles.

I have taken the last year deconstructing how I do that, so that I can do it more effectively. And my obsession has had an unexpected side effect.

Obsessing About Teaching My Obsessions

I now understand my thinking and my methods well enough to teach them to other coaches.

What was implicit has become explicit.

The Art of Coaching

There is an art to coaching.

When I am fully present, I not only know what to say next, but it simply pops into my head. And that presence someone creates a space for my client to have new insights as well.

Together, we literally create things that have not seemed possible before.

My capacity to be present has been the strongest driver of my coaching success. That capacity was built over thirty years of personal development work. Meditation. Retreats. Studying with teachers. Every successful coach I know has done a lot of this kind of work.

But there is another part to this that is more predictable. More explainable. More teachable.

The Science of Coaching

There is also a science to coaching. A “how to.” A process that can be replicated.

What is the best way to build a coaching business?

What is the best way to reach out to someone?

What is the best way to get a conversation?

What is the best way to, within the context of that conversation, introduce them to the idea of and experience of coaching?

What is the best way to enroll them in a coaching journey, one that could take a year or longer, and could change their lives and everyone around them?

These are the questions I obsess about. The questions that increase my capacity to connect with the people I most want to connect with.

And the answers to these questions are what I can now teach.

Do you have a particular question? A particular type of coaching business you would like to build?

Chances are, I have spent a great deal of time obsessing over that very thing.

It’s just what I do.

Discovering WHAT people need to do, and then helping them practice HOW to do it.

Like learning a martial art or a musical instrument, for example, you have to be willing to do the same things, over and over, to learn and practice the skills that you need.

Having a group of people around you who are committed to the same thing is incredibly helpful. Had I had a similar group I think it could have saved me years.

I am creating a Group Apprentice Program to teach everything I have learned.

If you want to learn more, here’s how to start.

How to Start

If a building a sustainable coaching business that will replace your corporate income is calling you, here’s a video where I share the the top three mistakes I see coaches make when trying to build a sustainable business—

http://bit.ly/creatingextraordinarycoaches

You will also get a link to my calendar to ask the question YOU have been obsessing about.

You can subscribe to my YouTube channel here—

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4FuzFAukDC_3nEGQB6AYbQ?sub_confirmation=1

You can follow me on LinkedIn and never miss a post: www.linkedin.com/comm/mynetwork/discovery-see-all?usecase=PEOPLE_FOLLOWS&followMember=jeffmunn

If you’re not already subscribed to my newsletters, you can do so here:

https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/creating-monthly-6930267414546821120

And when you’re ready to go even deeper, send me a private message or an email. I’m happy to help you any way I can.

hashtag#leapoffaith hashtag#coach hashtag#founder hashtag#founders

Filed Under: Coaches Tagged With: advice, coaches, coaching

July 31, 2023 by Jeff

What I’ve Learned In Seven Years of Building a Coaching Business

coaches, executive coaching
What I’ve Learned In Seven Years of Building a Coaching Business

Seven years ago today, on August 2, 2016, I was laid off from my last corporate job at Fidelity Investments. I was let go along with 155 of my colleagues, at it was almost a total surprise.

I had been laid off once before, in 2003, and had found another job at the same company. (I worked there 8 more years.) So my first thought was that I would do that again. Even a few months of that would make a big difference in the long-term payouts that I would vest it.

But I quickly figured out that was not going to happen.

That’s when the panic set in.

I realized later that I was operating under the assumption that there was no way I could replace my generous corporate income by coaching. I knew I didn’t want to take another “jobby job” as one of my corporate friends liked to call it, but I thought that given my health care expertise would qualify me to go out on my own as a consultant.

That resulted in some offers for job interviews, but no consulting gigs.

More panic.

Another of my corporate friends effectively slapped me across the face and said, “What are you doing? You say you want to coach. Coach!”

And at that point I started thinking about building a coaching business.

Learning Number One—No One Knows What Coaching Is

When I started reaching out to people in my network to tell them I was now a coach, the most common reaction was, “What sport?”

And when I tried to tell them about coaching, and specifically MY coaching, I fumbled a lot. I hired a well-known coach, Rich Litvin, to help me build my business before I had any paying clients, and the work that we did together was all about that part of it—determining who I wanted to help and how I was going to help them. And talking about it in a way that they would see the wisdom of paying me handsomely to work together.

It was a struggle. It challenged everything in me. Just to say what I did in a compelling way was an ongoing battle.

Learning Number Two—I Had to Figure Out How to Spend My Time

For years I had worked in companies in roles where I had some degree of freedom (certainly compared with most people), but there was still a lot of structure. In a given day I had meetings and calls and there was weekly travel and I generally knew what I was doing and what I was supposed to be doing.

Now, the goal was “get people to hire me as a coach.”

But there was little in the way of project plans to help someone do that. The closest thing was a book called, “The Prosperous Coach,” written by Rich Litvin and Steve Chandler, and while it is an incredibly helpful book, advice like “coach people powerfully” didn’t quite give me the structure that I, a corporate refugee, needed.

I had to create my own routine, my own structure, and keep myself from getting distracted from all of the things that looked productive but really were not helpful in building a business. Things like additional trainings and programs and certifications, setting up sales funnels, using Facebook Ads, and so on and so on and so on.

Learning Number Three—Building A Business Is Slower Than I Thought It Would Be

Much slower.

While I didn’t really decide to focus on coaching exclusively until October of 2016, I didn’t get my first paying client until May of 2017. (May 27, to be exact. I still have the check.) My thoughts of getting one new client a month, it turns out, were way off, mainly because I still didn’t know how to explain what I did to people in a way that made them want to pay me money for it.

And there was only one way that I could tell to get better at it.

Conversations. Lots of conversations. Conversations with everyone in my network around what I was doing now, how I was helping people who I wanted to help, who specifically I was looking to work with. Conversations where I proposed that we have coaching conversations. Conversations where I was asking for introductions to people I might want to coach. Conversations where I offered to help people whether I wanted to coach them or not.

An exceedingly small number of these conversations turned into anything. But the ones that did involved two things.

Learning Number Four—The Most Important Skill Is Deep Listening

Most people listen for gaps so they can speak.

Most people have never truly been listened to in their entire lives. Even by their spouses.

When you truly listen, when you practice what my teacher Jack Pransky calls “Deep Listening,” you have nothing on your mind. Nothing that you feel compelled to say, no urge to interrupt.

Until you do. And then, when you do say something, you often are able to observe something about the person in front of you that they might not even realize. You might be able to identify a possibility that they have not even considered.

That is the beginning of coaching. At least the kind of transformational coaching that we can offer if we can create the space for it.

There is one more ingredient that has made a huge difference, especially in the last couple of years.

Learning Number Five—Referrals Are Incredibly Important

My business really didn’t become sustainable until I had a small group of people who regularly referred me work.

And I cultivate referrers just as strongly as I cultivate potential clients. Maybe more so.

I’m not talking about referrals in exchange for fees. I am talking about people who are happy to get someone the help that they need, and who know that I will take care of anyone they send my way, whether I end up working with them or not.

Learning Number Six—Social Media is Important, but Not For The Reason You Think

I started writing on LinkedIn a long time ago. But I rarely get a client because of a piece I wrote on LinkedIn.

I recently expanded my presence to YouTube, and now Facebook and Instagram. But again, I am not sure I have gotten more than an occasional client directly from social media.

But what I have heard is that I am easy to research. From my website, my writing, my video, it is really easy to get a sense of who I am and what I believe. If someone does hear about me from a friend, they can very quickly assess whether it makes sense to have a conversation.

It saves everyone time. And it gets me more committed clients.

And to go back some of the earlier learnings, writing helps me think about how I work with people and who I want to work with and how I can help them. Writing helps accelerate the conversation process.

I am learning about myself just like my clients are.

So let’s say you want to build a sustainable coaching business instead of continuing or going back to the corporate world. What’s the most important learning of all?

Learning Number Seven—All My Learnings Are Learnable. And Teachable.

When other coaches learn what I have been up to—how I have been able to build my business, how it is now both my only source of income and has exceeded the income from the job I was laid off from, they naturally have questions.

I have helped a lot of coaches in this way. I enjoy it. It was never my primary goal, but I do feel a strong desire to help more coaches create sustainable businesses.

And I find that each of the things that I am talking about here is both teachable and learnable.

But like anything, like learning a martial art or a musical instrument, for example, you have to be willing to do the same things, over and over, to learn the skills that you need.

Having a group of people around you who are committed to the same thing is incredibly helpful. Had I had a similar group I think it could have saved me years.

How to Start

If a sustainable business, on your own, outside the corporate world, is calling you, here are three steps you CAN take—

If you would like a video where you learn the the top three mistakes I see coaches make when trying to build a sustainable business, click here—

http://bit.ly/creatingextraordinarycoaches

Subscribe to my YouTube channel here—

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4FuzFAukDC_3nEGQB6AYbQ?sub_confirmation=1

Follow me on LinkedIn and never miss a post: www.linkedin.com/comm/mynetwork/discovery-see-all?usecase=PEOPLE_FOLLOWS&followMember=jeffmunn

If you are not already subscribed to my newsletters, you can do so here:

https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/creating-monthly-6930267414546821120

And when you’re ready to go even deeper, send me a message.

hashtag#leapoffaith hashtag#coach hashtag#founder hashtag#founders

Filed Under: Coaches Tagged With: coach, coaches

June 28, 2023 by Jeff

The Three Mistakes You Must Avoid to Build a Sustainable Business

founders, business owners, ceos
The Three Mistakes You Must Avoid to Build a Sustainable Business

The first step, the leap of faith, is the scariest one.

I coach founders on the internal work that helps them stand, scale and sell their businesses with more impact and less stress. Often, my one-on-one clients have a business in the 8, 9, or even 10-figure range before they think about selling or going public. Growing a business at that scale is thrilling.

But to me, the most audacious moment of the entire journey is that leap of faith at the very beginning. The idea, for example, is that someone could leave the corporate world, leave a 6 or 7-figure job and make it on their own as a coach or consultant and NEVER GO BACK.

My own journey to that place has been thrilling and I love supporting others in theirs. I’ve learned a lot since going out on my own and building a business that exceeded my prior income, but in this article, I’m going to focus on three mistakes that I see founders make over and over again right at the beginning.

Don’t Start Scared

A lot of the founders I see simply aren’t ready for the break they are going to have in earnings while they build their businesses. While they might catch a break early, most businesses take some time to start generating revenue. For example, in the coaching world, I suggest someone have EITHER savings that will cover two years of expenses, OR have a job that covers their expenses while they are building the business.

What happens if you don’t have that? Unless you have done a lot of deep work (which I think is essential for coaches, by the way), it is very hard to have a conversation from a place of needing to sign the client to feed your family. Clients can sense that. No one hires someone who is needy or scared. Do what ever you need to do to come from a place of confidence.

Don’t Start with Strangers

When I started my coaching business, I was very uncomfortable talking about coaching, simply because I had no idea what I was doing. I still remember the first time someone asked me about how I work with people—at a party about a month after I started. I broke into a sweat, quickly excused myself, found a restroom, and hid the rest of the evening!

It can be easy to think that you can find clients through Clickfunnels and social media ads, but at some point, you’re going to have to talk to them and convince them that you can deliver something of value. In my experience, it was much easier building a business by networking with people I knew, reeducating them (and coincidentally, myself) on what I was doing, and asking them who else I should be talking with. Having conversations with real people will build your business much faster than getting “leads” from services, and then talking to them without any kind of established social capital.

I’ve been posting on LinkedIn quite a while now. But even today, most of the people who reach out to me after a post are people I already have some kind of relationship with. At the beginning at least, social media REINFORCES the connection rather than ESTABLISHING it.

Don’t Stay Superficial

This is the one rule that you might want to think about breaking. Because it is true that people will absolutely pay you for things like business coaching, time management coaching, and other ways to execute on doing more things more efficiently.

You can build a decent business doing this, but you will likely exhaust yourself and your clients in the process. And you will have a very hard time distinguishing yourself from other coaches and consultants who do the very same thing that you do.

But there is only one way that I am aware of to build a business where you have no competition, and where a small number of people will pay you very high fees.

To do that, you have to be willing to go deep. You have to be able to be comfortable in silence with no agenda. You have to have nothing on your mind.

When you are able to do this, you might see a possibility in the person in front of you that they haven’t even seen for themselves. And from that place, you can be the person who can help them be the person they need to be to reach their dreams.

When they see what you have opened up for them, there is no way they are going to go to someone else.

The right people will fully commit to their dreams, and any fee will seem like a bargain. Go deep, and your clients will follow.

How to Start

If a sustainable business, on your own, outside the corporate world, is calling you, here are three steps you CAN take—

Subscribe to my email list and get a special bonus as a thank you—https://jmunn.com/about/

Subscribe to my YouTube channel here— https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4FuzFAukDC_3nEGQB6AYbQ?sub_confirmation=1

Hit the bell on my profile to never miss my LinkedIn posts.

If you are not already subscribed to my newsletters, you can do so here: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/creating-monthly-6930267414546821120

And when you’re ready to go even deeper, send me a message.

hashtag#leapoffaith hashtag#coach hashtag#founder hashtag#founders

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: business owners, ceos, coach, coaches, founders

Jeff Munn



(970) 922-9272
jeff@jmunn.com


Carbondale, CO

Contact

Contact Information

Phone: (970) 922-9272
Email: jeff@jmunn.com
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

A Website by Brighter Vision | Privacy Policy